Whatshername
by Rasberry Parfait
Summary: She always seemed kind of weird," Austin said. Carter shrugged. "She is," he agreed. "But that's not always neccesarily a bad thing." Twoshot, rated K, CarterXCampus DJ.
1. Chapter 1

A/N: Yo homies, what it do?

What up with all the fics in Cinderella Story? It's like, half of them are Jonas Brothers, and then forty percent are originals. I think we should just cave and give the Jonas Brothers fics writers a whole section, just so we can actually find other stuff.

And have fanfiction make you go to a page that says, in big bold letters "ORIGINAL FICTION GOES HERE:

[Insert link to Fictionpress here.]

If you want to publish fanfiction, click here."

Like that.

Whatever. I just wanted to write this because Carter is cooler than Sam and Austin put together.

I used a different name for the DJ because for some reason, I can't see her as an Astrid.

Also, this is one those ones where I stayed up, ungodly hours into the night, because I wanted it posted RIGHT NOW and I didn't edit it.

Sorry bout that.

EDIT: I edited this. It now calls the DJ by her canon name, Astrid. How did I not see the awesomeness in the name before? I don't know. I think it's because I know what it means now. I also cleaned up a few other things. It's better now. You can also expect a follow-up in the days to come.

Disclaimer: If I owned Cinderella Story, Carter would have a whole movie instead of a commercial. And Austin's retarded friends would get hit by a bus, a la Regina George in Mean Girls. Which I don't even wish I owned, by the way.

Whatsername

Carter always thought she was weird.

Maybe he was being too judgmental-after all, he barely knew her. No, he didn't even know her name, so he didn't know her at all, so he was definitely being too judgmental.

But he did sit next to her in English. And he had noticed some things. Aside from the obvious, that is-her hair and wardrobe choices-he'd noticed that she rarely actually paid attention to what was going on in class. She was usually doodling, or scribbling down playlists or poems, things like that. Despite that, though, whenever the teacher called on her, she knew the answer, so either A., she knew how to pay attention and not pay attention at the same time; B., she did all the reading beforehand; or C., she was just an intelligent individual who already knew a lot of the things she was being taught.

Before class, she listened to her MP3 player, loud enough for Carter to hear-some songs he recognized, some he didn't-but she always knew when the bell rang, putting away the device just in time. After class, she whipped out the earbuds again, and had them in her ears before the bell was even finished ringing.

On the rare occasions that he listened to the morning announcements, he picked up the fact that she had a sense of humor.

And that was all he knew of the enigma that was Whatsername.

And maybe it was true that he had some strange fascination for her-his affections were all for Shelby, but that didn't mean he couldn't wonder about her. She was rarely seen speaking to anyone, except for teachers and the dance committees, and that made him wonder what was going on inside her head. What was she thinking about? It didn't help that he had no theories, aside from the obvious-music. Nobody thought about music nonstop. You could have music in your head nonstop, but you couldn't just think about how amazing music was without stopping.

He'd tried.

So while it was Shelby Cummings that held his attention the rest of the day, sixth period belonged to Whatshername.

For all the thought that he gave to her, it seemed strange to him that it wasn't until right after that fateful football game that he actually spoke to her.

He'd realized that he'd forgotten something in his locker, so while everyone else celebrated the school's victory, he was putting in the combination to his locker and was just opening it when he heard a voice say "You don't usually dress like that."

Considering the fact that he'd been under the impression that he was alone in the hallway, one can't blame for making a sound that was later described as "a cross between a yelp and girlish squeal" and yanking the door open so fast that his forehead didn't have time to get out of the way.

"Ow…" he muttered, turning around.

It was Whatsername standing there. Most people would be covering their mouths to hide a smile; she, on the other hand, was already doubled over with laughter, though she did manage to croak out "Sorry…are you okay?" through it.

"Yeah…" Carter said, rubbing his temple. He was irritated, but there was a part of him that could appreciate her honesty, the fact that she didn't hold back.

When she had recovered and was standing upright again, he asked "What did you say?"

"You mean before that happened?" she giggled, pointing at his forehead. "I was just pointing out that you usually don't dress like that."

"No."

"You usually dress like, a cowboy or a gangster or whatever."

"It varies day to day," he agreed, a little surprised that she'd ever even taken notice of his wardrobe choices; he'd always thought of her as a little oblivious.

"You should dress like this more often." She suggested.

"Uh, thanks…" he said warily, not sure if he was being mocked or complimented. "You don't usually dress like that either."

"Oh. Yeah," she said, looking down at her own outfit. She was wearing tennis shows, faded jeans and a sweatshirt with a logo for a band Carter had never heard of. She wasn't wearing any makeup, either, Carter noticed. He realized with a start that, even without the distinctive hair, he probably would have recognized her anyway.

"My brother dragged me here last minute." She continued.

"So you didn't actually want to come?"

She made a face of utter disgust.

"Ew, no. You did?"

"Kind of." He shrugged. He wasn't sure why he was feeling defensive about that, but he was, so he added, "What's it to you?"

She rolled her eyes. "Chill. I just hadn't pegged you as the school-sponsored event type."

Then it was Carter's turn to roll his eyes. "Yeah, because you're totally out of that loop, Miss DJ-At-Every-Dance-Slash-Morning-Announcer."

To his surprise, she smiled. "Yeah," she said slowly. "Good point."

Taken a little aback by this surrender, he gave a small nod and said "Thank you."

She nodded. "I better get going," she said. "My brother's probably waiting. See you in English, Carter."

"Uh, yeah…" he said. He felt guilty. If she knew his name, then he had no excuse for not knowing hers.

"It's Astrid," she said after a moment. She didn't sound insulted.

"Yeah. See you in English, Astrid!" he called as she was leaving, but the door had already shut behind her.

0o0o0o0o0o0

The next Monday, Carter was in a bad mood. The reason was that he'd forgotten to actually get what he'd gone to his locker for-the conversation with Astrid had distracted him-and seeing as that thing was a textbook, the result was that he didn't have his homework.

He slammed his locker shut in irritation and heard someone behind him say "Ah, exacting revenge, I see?"

He turned around and smiled despite himself.

"Hey, Astrid. You know, if I wanted to exact revenge, it would be on you."

"Oh, sure, it's my fault that you can't open a locker."

"No, it's your fault that you can't walk like a normal person."

"And that is?"

"Loudly."

She rolled her eyes. Shelby Cummings walked by right then, and smiled directly at Carter-after all, she needed new arm candy, and fast, as vengeance against Austin-but Carter didn't even notice. If he had, he wouldn't have cared.

"Whatever," she said. "So, I heard you got the lead in this year's musical."

He smiled at the thought. "Yeah."

"Congrats. I might actually come see this one. See you."

Once again, his response was lost-this time in the crowd of students-before it could reach her.

He turned around to find Sam, smiling at him, with Austin at her side, his arm around her waist.

"Were you just talking to Astrid Pearson?" Sam asked. Carter didn't need to be a mind reader to know what she was thinking.

'Well, at least he's moving on.'

He didn't voice this, however; all he said was "Yeah."

"Hm…" Austin said.

Carter turned to him. "What?" he asked, genuinely wondering what the former football star was thinking.

"I dunno, she just seems a little….weird."

Carter shrugged.

"She is," he agreed, "But that isn't necessarily a bad thing."


	2. Chapter 2

A/N: WHOO! Fourth post in two days! I am on a _role!_ I so would've had this up yesterday, making it my fourth post in one day, but it was late, and I had that daylight savings thing hanging over me, and I just, I just, I couldn't do it. Too tired. To continue.

I kept planning to follow up that first part, but couldn't come up with anything 'til today.

This has nothing to do with anything, but there's this part of this movie that I love: It's at the very beginning, not even a second long, but it's at Sam's birthday party when she's little, right after she blows out the candles and then her dad meets Fiona for the first time, she's watching her dad kind of going "Who is this strange lady that my father is talking to?" And there's this little boy with brown hair sitting next to her, blowing one of those noise makers right in her face, and you just know its Carter, being a drama king even then. Like I said, not even a second long, but one of my favorite moments, it is.

Fun Fact: _Edelweiss _is not a traditional Austrian Folk Song, or the Austrian National Anthem. It was written specifically for the musical by one of the producers, and since it's popularity, has been heavily marketed in the country, Salzburg especially.

Anyway, here we go, please enjoy and if you do (or don't) review!

Disclaimer: I don't own Cinderella Story. Or The Sound of Music. Or MTV.

0o0o0o0

It wasn't until much later that he realized he was in love with her.

With Sam and Austin together in the dating sense, they were often together in the literal sense as well. Carter was happy for the two of them, honestly; he was happy that things were finally falling into place for his best friend, and as for Austin, he seemed like a nice enough guy; but it couldn't be ignored that he felt like a third wheel. And that was how it became that he spoke to Astrid more and more, sometimes eating lunch with her. He learned a lot about her during these conversations; many of the questions he'd had about her before were answered. For instance, she did have friends; it was just that none of them went to their school, at least, before Carter, that was. Despite the fact that, for some reason, they never spoke outside of school, it got to a point where it couldn't be denied that they were friends anymore. Carter found himself a little afraid to get to this point, for some reasons he couldn't explain, but once they were at that point and referred to each other as their 'friend' without any awkwardness or hesitancy on either side, he was grateful-also for some reasons he couldn't explain.

But even through all this, it wasn't until opening night in the school musical that he realized he loved her. He was at the after party that one of the other actor's was holding at their house, feeling like a third wheel again as Sam Austin talked, (and it didn't help that it was only for his benefit that they refrained from less verbal forms of communication) and he was wondering whether Astrid had come or not. She'd mentioned only in passing, weeks ago, that she might come to the show, and not necessarily opening night (granted, they only did the show twice.) But somehow, he had translated that as a promise to come-not the first time he heard it, but later, hearing it again, played back in his mind with more conversations as reference.

Even Sam was starting to pick up on his mood. It took her four times saying his name before he finally came back to the outside world to find both Sam and Austin looking a little concerned.

"What's wrong?" Sam asked.

"Nothing."

"Liar."

"Prove it."

"Carter. You can tell me anything."

Carter sighed. "Fine. It's just that-" he suddenly looked up, having caught a flash of silvery blond and magenta hair out of the corner of his eye. Sure enough, Astrid stood by the door, watching him, waiting for an opportunity to make a way through the crowd. They made eye contact, and both of them smiled, and then Carter suddenly looked down at his hands as a realization washed over him. He was in love with Astrid.

Everything about her captivated him-her hair, her eyes, her smile and her laugh, the things she said and the way she said them. Her taste in music, the clothes she wore and why she wore them. Every quirk and every eccentricity, he loved them all, and that scared him more than words could say. This wasn't like what he had felt for Shelby. That had been a crush, based solely on physical appeal, and the truth was her looks were the only thing Shelby had going for her. Astrid had beauty-not the same kind of beauty that Shelby had, but still just as, if not more, beautiful-but more importantly, she had depth. It was why Carter loved her, and it was why he was afraid.

"It's just that what?" Sam nudged for him to continue. Austin sat back and watched. It wasn't that he didn't care; just that he didn't know Carter all that well, really, and thought it best that he stay out of this conversation.

Carter looked up and gulped. "I gotta go." He said. He stood up and bolted from the table, leaving Austin and Sam feeling quite confused.

Carter made his way through the crowd and met up with Astrid, and they both decided to go for a walk-it was too crowded and loud in the house, and neither of them liked parties much anyway. They made Carter feel claustrophobic, and Astrid didn't like them because they involved large groups of people that, for the most part, she didn't actually like.

"You came," Carter said, trying not to sound as thrilled as he was, as soon as they were far enough away from the house to be heard.

"Of course I came," Astrid said. "I said I would, didn't I?"

"Well-" Well, you were kind of vague, but I didn't realize that until tonight and I was expecting you to come until I couldn't find you and thought maybe you hadn't come and that was when I realized that you hadn't said you were definitely going to, but-

"Yeah. You did."

"You need to learn to trust me more," she said.

"Yeah." She could have said anything, and he would have to agree with her.

"You were really good up there, by the way," she said. "Even with all the hair gel."

He laughed. "Thanks."

"I knew you could act, but didn't tell me you could sing." She continued.

"Well, you knew it was a musical," he pointed out.

"Yeah, but that doesn't mean anything. Most musicians today can't sing. Don't you watch MTV?"

"Uh, not-not really." _Not to self: Start watching MTV. _

"Good for you."

_Note to self: DO NOT start watching MTV. _

"What was that one song?" she asked him. "The really slow, lullaby-type one? The one he sang to tick off the Nazis at that concert?"

"_Edelweiss."_

"That one. Sing it for me?"

"What?" He had not expected that.

"Come on. None of this 'well, I don't know if I can' humble act. You already sang it in front of the whole school." The irony struck him as he realized how right she was. Singing in front of an entire auditorium was no big deal. He hadn't suffered from stage fright in years. Singing in front of _her, _though….that was different. But she wanted a song, and that was what she was going to get.

0o0o0o0o0

He didn't look at her the entire time. He was too afraid. He looked straight ahead, and didn't consciously notice when she stopped walking, though subconsciously he did notice and stopped as well. When he finished the song, he looked over at her and was surprised.

She wasn't smiling. She didn't look upset, either, though, just…speechless. This was not the Astrid he knew, always calm, collected, who never ran out of things to say. This was a side of her he hadn't seen before, and he loved it as much as he loved the other side, because it was her.

"That was amazing," she said finally, barely above a whisper.

"Thanks," he matched her volume without trying.

They stared at each other for several more moments before he kissed her.

Carter never felt like a third wheel after that, and Edelweiss became his favorite song.


End file.
